Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-10-14
HIS LITTLE GAME.
How F1c I'Inycd II.
LIEN DUKE HAILIli.

Dick Thornton was good soul, with
plenty of moneg, an easy conscience,
an inquiring turn OF mind, and quiet,
humorous way of taking the world, its
blessings and Ills that often developed
into direct originality OF thought, word,
and deed.
t'In sweet content my days are spent, !"
was the inaudible MARBLE of Richards
heart during thirtyfive years of single
blesscdness. He enjoyed, but never
abused. the good things of this earth,
skinned around aE the "isms" and
<'ologies" as they bobbed up on the sur
face, helped his friends, and was happy.
One summer ho went into neigh
boring State to hunt butterflies, grubs,
and "sich." He found board in large
farmhouse with two orphan stepsisters
who, with plenty Of money and much
real-estate, still resided in the old
homestead. There was one of his en-
tertainers very "old-maid," with all
that is implied by that term in its most
offensive sense; the other was young
maid, sweet as the butter she rounded
into pats with her dainty hands, trim
built, and good to look at as a new
trotting-bugsy with vermillion wheels,
pretty, and modest as pansy flower.
Dick neglected the winged beauties
hc came to capture and devoted his en-
orgies to winning sweet Mary--Minnie,
and he succeeded in securing her true
young heart, much to the disgust of
Miss Catharine, or "Catty," as she was
called, at1ectionately by her sister, with
sarcastic emphasis on the Goat" by all
others. For the antique and unique
maiden had made dead set" at the
hoarder, as she did at every other man,
the minute he had come in range.
The wedding went off in due time
and style. After long tour the mar
s.ied lovers returned to their city home
and were as happy as two doves in one
nest. Dick settled down to catch up
with all the new "kinlls" that had
broken out during his protracted
honeymoon, and the little wife some
shines felt lonely in the big, strange city
f'ouse and missed the farm and Cattys
bossing."
AT last she proposed to Dick that her
bali sister be invited to pay them a
visit.
Certainly. my darling, your sister
and all your friends sisters are well
come; invite whom you WILL" said the
good husband.
Now Minnie, from lifelong associa-
ton, was blinded to the many unpleas-
ant peculiarities and cultivated imper-
fections of her much elder sister
Catty had brought her up by hand,
{many said, more often by the earl
from the time she was wee toddlcr,
but the af1ectionate, innocent nature of
the child never detected the iron-hand
which SO long ruled her.
Catty came with eagcrness, also with
little box, big box, handbook, and
brown-paper bundle. Nature had been
lavish with its material in manufactur.
ing til pinster, but nature had been
more than careless i'll distribution OF
her anatomical sections. She filled out
where she ought to have "give i'll, u
heightened where she should have
shortened up, tiattened where she
ought to have rounded out, and was
,drealfully mixed in general. She was
so ugly that passers-by. catching sight
of her, would clap their hands to theil
cheeks-she gave them the faceache.
Her voice was like o steam calliope
with the bronchitis, and when she
tuned it in "hymns OF praise" in church
and she always did it, too, at the high
est pitch, if she didn't raise the deaC
she raised the profane ire of all within
the ediiice. Her temper was uncertain
as the heels of an army mule, eXcep
that it was certain not to be pleasant
more than two minutes in every sixty
That's the kind of fractional sister
in-law Dick Thornton had to do thu
polite to, trot around with to all thu
sights of the city, introduce to hi
friends, and be made martyr of gen
orally. He stood it like little man
It pleased Minnie, who never noticed
Cattys unlikeness to Others, and h
was willing to submit to anything TO
tls wice's sake. Nevertheless he wa
delighted when the terror was force'
20 return to the farm to sec about get